What have I got myself into?!

Hi all, having always wanted to get a van to convert to a mini camper me and the boyfriend recently took the plunge and bought a 1.3 hijet. Driving it home on the motorway and the temp gauge shot up, I felt what I now know to be the overflow tank lid pop off and hit my seat and all the steam flowing from the back of the of the van. And so was our introduction to the hijet life (managed to get home by being towed 130km). I'm from Yorkshire but we live in the netherlands. We are currently working our way through trying to figure out what's wrong and fix our overheating issue and this forum so far has been a great tool, especially with us both having no prior knowledge on vehicles. Iv tried to attach a photo of the van but who knows if its worked haha. We may well keep in touch for both the engine work and the conversion assuming we get it running, wish us luck

Welcome - I'm afraid you've got yourself into another overheating Hijet. You're not the first...

And certainly will not be the last! Welcome to the madhouse, plenty of info on here, just use the search button at the top. First thing and cheapest is to fully flush the cooling system and fill with correct antifreeze, replace the rad caps, one on radiator and one in engine bay (make sure the sealing faces they seal to are in tip top condition, no rust or corrosion etc), bleed the van using the info behind the front grille or search on here, then run it and see how it goes then. A warm welcome from Yorkshire (although I was an import from Lancashire many many years ago!).

Hi, welcome.
Which part of Holland do you live in?
If you live near Eindhoven, and need a hand with the overheating, just let me know.

Heeey thats really kind of you but we are just north of Amsterdam so not sure qe could get much further away haha we replaced the thermostat yesterday and emptied and refilled the coolant using the bleed technique qe had seen mentioned on here so much and on our test run 11km down the road the heaters went cold and the temp gauge shot up so im sulking haha we are going to try bleed the air out again and iv ordered rad caps so fingers crossed! But if youre ever up this way would love to pick your brains

That's not really in the same area hahah.
Lets hope the caps work.
Is the radiator hot when you drive it, or does it stay cold?

Its starts off warm then will all of a sudden go cold and the engine over heats so its as though there is still air in there thats worked its way up to the radiator and got stuck.

That sounds like air in the system, but that can also be caused by the headgasket.
The warming up of the radiator and heater suggests that the wsterpump and thermostat are working.

How does the car start after standing still for a while?
Fires up on 4 cilinders immediately, or does it hessitate snd run on 3?
Flushing toilet noises while starting or when shutting off?

Boiled up hijet on the motorway on the way home... sprayed with hot brown coolant.

Its called the Hijet baptism/christening

You have officially been confirmed

Pressure test it with air, replace all the defective coolant hose clips / radiator caps / thermostat etc - probably bottom of the radiator plastic end cap leaks - probably metal coolant hoses have pitting/holes - the seal seat where the cap fits corroded..... and it's probably boiled up countless times before which is why it was for sale - so the head gasket will be f***ed on it and the head warped round cylinder 4.